Engineering Degree Courses in Kenya: Thousands of students at Kenyan universities are taking 26 engineering degree courses that have not been accredited. This has been revealed by the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK). “It is a waste of resources for the parents and students taking unaccredited courses and such waste affects our country’s economy negatively,” said Margaret Ogai, the EBK registrar said.
The courses are being taken in recognized universities including the University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Egerton University and Kenyatta University.
University of Nairobi deregisters 30,000 students
According to a report that appeared in the Daily Nation on Friday:
Egerton University has five courses which include:
- BSc Civil and environmental engineering
- BSc Electrical and control engineering
- BSc Civil and structural engineering
- BSc Mechanical engineering and technology
- BSc Manufacturing engineering
Kenyatta University has four courses which include:
- Bsc Petroleum engineering
- BSc Biomedical engineering
- BSc Aerospace engineering
- BSc Agricultural and biosystems engineering
South Eastern Kenya University has four courses which include:
- BSc Agricultural engineering
- BSc Civil engineering
- BSc Electrical and electronics engineering
- BSc Mechanical engineering
University of Nairobi has one
- BSc Petroleum engineering
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has three which include:
- BSc Aerospace engineering
- BSc Chemical engineering
- BSc Materials and Metallurgical engineering
Last year, 75 students who pursued unregulated snd unauthorized degrees at the University of Nairobi were in July awarded Sh. 15 million as compensation by the High Court. The Technical University of Kenya, which had issued the degrees on behalf of University of Nairobi was also ordered to forward their names to UoN so that they could be included in the list of graduates.
These students had unsuspectingly enrolled for engineering degree courses that were neither recognized nor authorized by the local engineers board. This meant that they couldn’t get any jobs in the market. Their degrees were rendered useless.
In 2019, it was revealed that thousands of students were wasting time and money studying useless degree programmes in various Kenyan universities.
This was after the Commission for University Education (CUE) rejected 133 courses with a cumulative enrolment capacity of 10,000 slots.
CUE is supposed to approve all the academic programmes taught in local universities.
Of concern was that there were students already studying these programmes who would either be forced to discontinue their studies due to mistakes that are not of their own making or become unmarketable after graduation.
